Digital lighting technologies, i.e. illumination based on semiconductor light sources, such as Light-Emitting Diodes (LEDs), offer a viable alternative to traditional fluorescent, HID, and incandescent lamps. Functional advantages and benefits of LEDs include high energy conversion and optical efficiency, durability, lower operating costs, and many others. Recent advances in LED technology have provided efficient and robust full-spectrum lighting sources that enable a variety of lighting effects in many applications. Some of the fixtures embodying these sources feature a lighting module, including one or more LEDs capable of producing different colors, e.g. red, green, and blue, as well as a processor for independently controlling the output of the LEDs in order to generate a variety of colors and color-changing lighting effects, for example, as discussed in detail in U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,016,038 and 6,211,626.
Recent developments in digital lighting technologies such as LED-based lighting systems have made the precise control of digital or solid-state lighting a reality. Consequently, light-based systems are used today that are programmed to react to certain events or to implement a user's previously-entered preferences.
From a user's perspective, disclosed systems and techniques for implementing lighting control often offer little more than lamp dimming according to previously entered preferences. For example, in disclosed systems and techniques, a user's lighting preferences for a specific environment can be programmed by a building administrator. The system can then control the environment's lights to implement the user's preferred lighting arrangement. In this manner, an office worker who prefers to have his or her workspace brightly lit, or alternatively, dimly lit, can have the system programmed accordingly by an administrator. Similarly, administrators can schedule “on” and “off” time periods according to a user's work schedule to save energy.
As an additional example, one known system features direct-indirect fluorescent luminaires with integrated occupancy and daylight sensors that communicate with a central controller via an RS-485 hardwired network. The central controller then communicates via a local area network (LAN) with desktop computers. This system enables office workers to dim task (direct) and ambient (indirect) lighting over their workstations and turn task and ambient lighting on and off using personal lighting control software installed on their computers. The system also permits office managers to: assign control to individual luminaires, groups, areas, and the entire lighting network; enable and disable luminaire daylight sensors; enable and disable luminaire occupancy sensors; specify occupancy sensor delay times; independently specify task and ambient lamp control; enable and disable load shedding; generate detailed energy consumption reports; and schedule daily, weekly, monthly, and annual events. In this sense, this system and similar conventional products may be considered as extensions of building management systems that also manage HVAC and security subsystems.
Lighting systems have been disclosed that cause lighting controllers to execute a command or a set of commands, sometimes called a lighting script, upon the detection of the occurrence of an event or according to predetermined time sequences. For example, one disclosed system employs software that enables a lighting designer to create a lighting script by specifying changes in color and intensity of multiple luminaires over time and a memory that stores the lighting script for later execution. Lighting controllers for theatrical and entertainment venues enable a lighting designer to record and edit time sequences for hundreds or thousands of luminaires. Lighting systems have also been disclosed that include the ability to execute prerecorded lighting scripts in response to external events, such as, for example, switch closures, analog signals, and network commands. One disclosed system activates or adjusts lights upon the detection of the receipt of an e-mail, the receipt of a telephone call, or an alarm going off. Another disclosed system activates lights using voice or word recognition; yet another implements a light pattern upon detection of a person making gestures. Lighting controllers in such systems may include simple logic functions or conditions, such as a logic function that executes a lighting script only when two events or conditions occur at the same time. For example, a lighting script may be executed if a proximity switch is triggered and a photosensor indicates that it is after sunset. Such lighting scripts, however, do not change after they are recorded unless a lighting designer manually changes them.
Lighting systems also have been disclosed wherein a person can input his or her lighting preferences for a specific location, and a central controller can execute a lighting script to instruct LEDs or other light sources and implement the person's preferences. In one disclosed system, lighting systems may receive inputs indicating the presence of a person, the duration of the person's presence, or identifying the presence of a particular person or persons present in the location by, for example, the magnetic reading of name badges or a biometric evaluation. Disclosed systems may then implement different lighting scripts depending upon whether a person is present, how long the person is present, and which person is present. These systems may also select different lighting scripts depending on the number of persons in a room or the direction the people are facing. In one disclosed system, lighting devices and other energy sources are turned on or off depending on information in a person's electronic calendar.
Some disclosed lighting systems can receive information regarding a person's presence or the person's preferences from a device carried by a user. For example, in some disclosed systems, a card reader can detect the presence of a card carried by a user, which can then cause the system to turn a light on when, for example, the user enters a room and turn off the light when the user exits the room. In other disclosed lighting systems, user's preferences are stored on a mobile device or card. As the user travels, data can be transferred to devices and systems capable of conforming parameters under their control to the stored preferences (e.g., dim lights or change their color), either through automatic detection of the card or, in other systems, by inserting the card into a card reader.
However, in various disclosed systems, implementing user preferences or implementing lighting scripts upon the occurrence of an event, the preferences or scripts are either (1) specific to a particular location and not executable in a different location or (2) necessarily transported by a user in order to be implemented in different locations or in different networks. As such, there are no systems that permit a user's preferences or a lighting script to be implemented in a system other than those in which the user's preferences were programmed unless the user carries a device storing his or her preferences.
Furthermore, lighting systems have been disclosed that can monitor users' activities and sensed environmental parameters to learn the user's preferences for a specific environment. For example, some systems can monitor how a user has maintained or selected settings in a given environment for a period of time to create user preferences for that environment. In other known systems, devices may follow a lighting script unless a particular action is detected. Other systems can monitor how a user reacts to a given set of environmental circumstances and create a rule for future implementation in that environment. One disclosed lighting control system has both autonomous control and event-based control. This system is disclosed as implementing a fuzzy control system, wherein rules in a rule base determine system output based upon fuzzy inputs or the occurrence of events. However, there is currently no way for systems at remote locations to take advantage of preferences learned by other systems other than by a user carrying a device holding his or her preferences.
As such, there are deficiencies associated with the known systems. For example, known systems generally relate to stand-alone, self-contained systems for controlling lighting or other devices. For a user's preferences to be implemented in another environment, or for learned parameters to be implemented in another environment, a user must carry around a device storing his or her preferences. As such, one disadvantage of these disclosed systems is the inability to share learned parameters, including information learned by monitoring individual and system actions, with other systems.
Some conventional lighting systems can receive information regarding a person's presence or the person's preferences from a device carried by a user. For example, in some disclosed systems, a card reader can detect the presence of a card carried by a user, which can then cause the system to turn a light on when, for example, the user enters a room and turn off the light when the user exits the room. In other disclosed lighting systems, a user stores his or her preferences on a mobile device or card. As the user travels, data can be transferred to devices and systems capable of conforming parameters under their control to the stored preferences (e.g., dim lights or change their color), either through automatic detection of the card or, in other systems, by inserting the card into a card reader.
However, advances in digital lighting technologies that have given rise to precisely controllable lighting, open a possibility to control light for variety of different purposes that goes beyond mere adjusting the light according the person's presence.